


Supernatural, Season 7, Episode 17, The Born-Again Identity

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s07e17 The Born-Again Identity, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 07, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22842082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Supernatural, Season 7, Episode 17, The Born-Again Identity

Open to Sam running. In an alley I think is the same one as in The Man Who Knew Too Much, he comes across a dealer. The dealer yells at him, but he’s more focused on Lucifer’s continued tormet.

Sam starts to leave, but convinced Sam is on a bad trip, the dealer offers him something to knock him out.

There’s a cut to them both sitting asleep in a car. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but I really like something about the shot.

Unfortunately for Sam, whatever he was given isn’t strong enough to overpower his suicidal subconscious, and Lucifer wakes him up. Getting out, he’s hit by a car when he starts to run.

After the credits, Dean bursts into a doctor’s office despite an aide’s protests. Sending her away, the doctor explains Sam was treated for his injuries and is under psychiatric lockdown until they can figure out if the insomnia is causing his mental distortion or if the insomnia is a product of the mental distortion.

Resigned to not getting Sam out immediately, Dean admits Sam has been having some problems but the sleep thing is relatively recent.

The doctor tells him they’ve pumped Sam with as many sedatives as they safely can, but it’s not working. He takes Dean to Sam’s apparently private room to let him visit. Dean promises Sam he’s going to find help, and Lucifer is snarky.

Meanwhile, Sam tries to get Dean to accept the fact he (Sam) is probably going to die soon. He doesn’t want Dean running himself ragged trying to find help which likely doesn’t exist.

Obviously, he’s never met his brother.

Pressing on, Sam brings up Cas.

This is interesting. On one level, the reason he brings him up is to get the audience ready for when Cas appears later, but on a character level, it’s not so clear. This is all Cas’s fault, but Sam doesn’t say this. He tells Dean that Cas warned them bringing his soul back had risks, and this casts Cas in more of a friend’s light.

I’m not sure if Dean knows Dean in love with Cas, but Sam knows. Whether he knows if Cas returned his brother’s feelings is iffy. If Sam would so easily forgive Cas if he didn’t know of Dean’s feelings, at least, is an interesting question.

“Screw Cas,” is Dean’s response, because, he’s in no mood to think about the stupid angel who made him fall in love, hurt his brother, which he thought was unforgivable but some part of him either could have or has already forgiven him, and then, (not quite) died on him before they could rebuild. He wants Sam to get angry and show some fighting spirit.

“Too tired,” Sam says.

There’s intercutting shots of Sam being examined while Dean calls all of Bobby’s contacts. At one point, Lucifer has gotten a hold of a psych book and is trying to self-diagnose. Then, Bobby’s book falls, and Dean finds a card on the floor. Calling the number, he leaves a message.

Back at the hospital, Lucifer briefly makes Sam believe he (Lucifer) is a doctor. Later, he makes Sam see squirmy things in Sam’s food. Dropping the food, Sam looks up to see a creepy looking redhead with a bandage on her neck standing in the doorway. Wordlessly, she wanders away.

Meanwhile, Dean gets a call from the hunter buddy of Bobby’s. He tells Dean about a man named Emmanuel who roams around and heals people. The hunter was going blind, and he went to Emmanuel’s wife. She told him Emmanuel would come to him, and he did. None of the traps or tests affected him, and he healed the hunter’s eyesight.

Back at the hospital, Lucifer is torturing Sam with a megaphone, and looking significantly less creepy, the redhead startles him by saying, “Hello.” She offers him a candy bar since he had the freak-out over the food. Her name is Marin.

Accepting the candy, he tries to talk to her, but the feedback from the megaphone makes him repeatedly wince, and she skedaddles.

In the next scene, Dean goes to Colorado. He talks to what he thinks is Emmanuel, and then, he sees Daphne Allen, Emmanuel’s wife, tied up inside the house. The demon shoves him against the door hard enough for Dean’s skull to crack the glass, yet, his skull seems to suffer absolutely no injuries. He kills the demon. Then, he sees a familiar face standing at the bottom of the steps asking about the creature Demon just killed.

Hi, Casem!

In addition, Casem can see the demon’s true face.

So, if a possessed person and the demon possessing them are both killed, what part of the demon stays behind in the body?

Inside, Casem frees Daphne, and she assures him she’s fine before dragging him over to Dean.

I have so many problems with Daphne. More should have been done with her.

When I first wrote this review I said that: Maybe more is planned in the future, but I think she and Adam are in the same boat.

Now, from what I’ve read, Adam has come back, but with it being the final season, she still has not been seen, heard of or from, or even mentioned.

When I first watched this episode I don’t necessarily think she should have had an arc or even appeared in another episode, though, I probably wouldn’t have objected, but one or two lines could have neatly tied everything up.

Either this woman has ties to the preternatural, or she’s completely human with no knowledge beside Casem’s gifts. Either they’re married, otherwise romantically/sexually involved, or she is Casem’s partner but they aren’t truly married/romantically/sexually involved. Whatever it is, Casem just vanishes, and if she’s an ordinary human and cares about him, she’s going to wonder where he is and what’s happened, especially if they actually are married. A line from Dean about how she took things hard but should be okay or a line from Cas about how he went to see her and everything’s straightened out would be have done the job. Even a line about Daphne disappearing without a trace, and them wondering what her deal was would do it. It never has to be answered, but the question being raised is needed.

What happens if they are legally married, she falls in love and wants to get married to the person, and then, she has to wonder if Casem is even still alive or has to deal with trying to get an absentee divorce?

Dean fully realises Casem isn’t Cas. He doesn’t know he’s an angel or about demons being commonplace.

Daphne pipes up about how Casem has special gifts. Dean acknowledges this is why he’s come.

“What’s your issue,” Casem inquires.

Dean doesn’t answer: You. You hurt my brother, and I might have already forgiven you, but if I haven’t completely, I could, because, it turns out I’m in love with you. Falling in love with angel would be bad enough, but however gender does or doesn’t work for angels, I perceive you as male, and my relationship with my bisexuality is complicated enough without actually falling in love with another man. On top of all of this, you left, and you don’t even remember me.

Instead, he simply answers, “My brother.”

Meanwhile, Sam is suffering through Lucifer playing music and setting off firecrackers. An orderly asks how Sam is doing. Sam asks about Marin, and the orderly says he can’t really talk about other patients but implies Marin harmed herself. He leaves, and Lucifer continues his torture.

Elsewhere, it’s night, and Dean is driving. He asks Casem about his marriage to Daphne, and as someone else pointed out, Casem’s dialogue is deliberately ambiguous. Earlier, he called Daphne his wife, but there is a possibility this just something they’ve been telling everyone.

Although, I’m not sure why they would. In countries such as America, the only benefit appearing to be married brings is perhaps a more favourable perception by others. However, this is the 2000s. Sure, more conservative people might not approve, but I doubt most of them actually make a fuss when unmarried lovers live to together, and I’m sure they can definitely accept the fact platonic, mixed-gender roommates exist.

He explains Daphne found him near a river when she was hiking, and he hesitates for a moment before adding he was “unclothed”. Either he’s uncomfortable due to some still-present attraction to Dean, or some part of him realises Dean wouldn’t like hearing about him being naked/another person experiencing his nakedness. He tells Dean he had no memory. Continuing, he says Daphne said God wanted her to find him.

Dean asks, “So, who named you Emmanuel?”

A baby-naming website, is the answer. Heh.

Dean comments it must be weird not knowing who he (Casem) is. Casem replies it’s his life, and it’s a good one.

If it weren’t for Sam, Dean would probably leave Casem behind, and perhaps, leave a way to contact Dean if he should ever need or want to. I personally think he’s forgiven Cas; he’d need time to fully trust again, but he’s forgiven.

Dean tried to make a good life with Lisa and Ben. Maybe, without his memories and the baggage of being who he once was, Casem could do the same with Daphne, and it’d work. Dean’s forgiven him enough, at least, not to begrudge him this.

However, Sam is on the line, and Dean asks, “What if you were some kind of, I don’t know, bad guy?”

Casem answers he doesn’t feel like he’s a bad person.

At the hospital, Marin appears to leave another candy bar for Sam, but he asks her to share it with him. They form a tentative bond over the fact the doctors can’t really understand what’s going on, and it’s established they both hear one specific voice.

In a cool moment, Sam asks if this is why she set the fire. She demands to know who told him. He quickly explains he can identify the type of marks/wounds on her neck as the result of fire.

I hope this is just a way of empathising Sam’s intelligence, observance, and hunter nature, because, if the audience was supposed to know a fire was responsible for her bandage, I’m not as smart as the show gave me credit for.

She tries to leave, but he talks her down enough for it to be revealed her brother is haunting her before she bounces.

In the car, Casem asks about Sam’s diagnosis. Dean explains it’s not exactly medical, and Casem says this is fine, as he can handle spiritual-type illness as well.

“Someone did this to him,” Dean says, and he’s more neutral than he’d normally be.

“You’re angry.”

“Yeah, the dude broke my brother’s head.”

“He betrayed you, this dude.”

Dean looks over. The part of Cas able to figure out what Dean’s deal was within minutes of officially meeting him is still present as Casem asks, “He was your friend?”

“Yeah, well, he’s gone.”

Realising there’s a lot more to the story than Dean is telling, Casem inquires, “Did you kill him?” When Dean simply looks at him, Casem continues, “I’m sensing you kill a lot of people.”

“Honestly, I don’t know if he is dead. I just know this whole thing couldn’t be messier.”

He continues he used to be able to shake things off but, “What Cas did, I just can’t. I don’t know why.”

Casem doesn’t react to the name, but he reacts to Dean’s pain. “You’re human,” he says. Dean is angry, hurt, and scared, because, this is how humans are designed to react to bad things. It doesn’t make him a failure of a man, and rather than showing something wrong with his nature, it shows there’s something right.

“You’re friend’s name was Cas? It’s an odd name.”

No, it’s not. Maybe for males it is, but for females, shortening Cass from Cassandra or Cassie isn’t uncommon.

During the day, Dean stops. Telling Cas to stay, he leaves, and in the store, he’s attacked by demons. Someone saves him, and he thinks its Casem, but he looks up to see Meg.

Pulling the window shades down, he flips the closed sign before asking what Meg wants. She explains she heard a host of rumours about Emmanuel and went to find him. Upon doing so, the fact he’s the spitting image of the supposedly dead Castiel didn’t escape her notice.

Deam grumpily explains he doesn’t know what the deal with Casem is, and Casem doesn’t, either. He warns Meg to keep quiet.

As he’s stealing food, Meg explains she still hates Crowley, there’s a price on her, and rumours of Emmanuel are low right now, but with the rising body count, it won’t be long until more powerful demons start swarming. She wants to team up with them, and at his resistance, she tells him to imagine what would happen if Crowley got his hands on Casem.

He agrees on the condition she give his knife back.

She asks if he wants her to jog Casem’s memory, and at his glare, she agrees this wouldn’t be good as they (read: Dean) wouldn’t want to upset Casem.

Outside, Casem freaks out about Meg, but through gritted teeth, Dean calls her a friend. She’s awkward as she tries not to say anything to give Casem the idea she once knew him. Then, she’s flirty, and Dean is grumpy.

Back at the hospital, Sam apologises to Marin for upsetting her. Making it clear he believes she didn’t set the fire, he offers to help her. They go into his room, and she babbles about his organs needing rest or else his hair will fall out and his kidneys will shut down.

Finding her adorable, Lucifer laughs.

Sam discovers her brother is connected to a bracelet he made for her at camp when his hand was cut. So, he asks the woman who supposedly set a house on fire, “Is there any chance in hell you have a lighter?” Heh.

In the car ride of awkward, Casem is sitting in the front seat. He fidgets. “This silence is very uncomfortable. Is there something I should know?”

Meg prods Dean, and Dean declares Meg an awkward creature. Casem is sympathetic, and Meg informs him Dean was just making a joke. “Oh,” Casem declares with a brief smile on his face; it’s somewhat like the time on the park bench. Neither time was funny, but both times, Cas recognised what Dean was going for, and it made him happy. Then and now, he still doesn’t exactly understand why it does.

Meanwhile, Sam tries to ignore Lucifer as he helps Marin exorcise her brother. Once the brother’s gone, knowing other people will come soon, Sam he quickly tells Marin to leave. She does, and orderlies burst into to the destroyed room.

Later, he comes to consciousness to find himself restrained to the bed. The doctor says they need to talk about surgical options. Lucifer hopefully suggests a lobotomy, but the doctor assures Sam, “Don’t worry, we’re not talking lobotomy.”

Then, Sam starts to lose consciousness.

Outside, the unlikely trio have arrived at the hospital. They discover there are demons waiting outside, and Dean only has the one knife. Meg tries to subtly say it’s time to bring Cas back since he’s their best hope at getting through, and Dean asks to talk to her privately.

They wander away, and Casem is now sure there’s something he’s not being told.

Meg uses the biggest trump card there is, “Sam’s in there.”

Not unreasonably, Dean isn’t sure bringing up all their messy history isn’t a horrible idea. “He could snap. He could disappear. Who knows?”

“I gather we know each other,” Casem comments. “You can tell me, and I’ll be fine.”

“How do you know,” Dean inquires. “You just met yourself. I’ve known you for years.”

Tired of all this messiness keeping her in constant danger, Meg declares, “You’re an angel.”

“I’m sorry,” Casem says. “Is that a flirtation?”

“No, it’s a species. A very powerful one.”

“She’s not lying,” Dean says. “That’s why you heal people. You don’t eat. I’m sure there’s more.”

Casem asks why Dean wouldn’t tell him. He declares being an angel sounds pleasant.

Dean informs him it’s not.

This is interesting. He wouldn’t know personally, but he’s seen enough angels unhappy, including Cas, he can make that generalised statement and still have it hold weight. Anna told him being an angel sucked, and when she became one again, she proved it. Cas was either emotionless or conflicted about things, and eventually, he went against everything he’d come to believe in once a form of his old mentality took over.

Meg chirps in Dean would know due to the fact he and Cas used to fight together. “Bestest of friends, actually,” she says, because, she’s not confident Dean won’t kill her if she explicitly brings up the fact both their feelings went deeper.

“We’re f-friends?” The realisation is hitting. “Am I Cas?”

Am I the one who caused you, this person I feel instinctively drawn to, such pain and misery? Am I the one who betrayed you? Am I the one whose wife you saved and have been nice to regardless of these facts?

The look on their faces gives the answer, and he apologises for not remembering Dean.

Meg tells him to just smite the demons already. He doesn’t know how, and trying to be encouraging, Dean gives the whole ‘it’s like riding a bike’ saying.

“I don’t know how to do that, either,” Casem responds. Heh.

He agrees to try, however. Once he’s out of earshot, Dean announces they’re screwed. Meg, however, has some sort of faith in Casem.

Casem approaches one of the demons. The demon says, “Hey, I know you. You’re dead.”

“Yes, I’ve heard,” Casem answers. Placing his hand on the demon’s face, he exorcises/kills him. As he exorcises/kills them, his memories return, and notably, Dean is the centre of most of them.

As they watch, Meg proudly says, “That’s my boy.”

Dean and Meg come over with her expressing her pride and admiration. Dean worriedly prods, “Cas?”

“I remember you.” Turning, he continues he remembers everything. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because Sam is dying in there.”

“Because of me!”

The obvious answer is this is even more reason for him to fix it, but he’s too caught up in wallowing in his guilt and self-loathing to try. Harshly ordering Meg to stay, Dean chases after him.

Inside, the orderly has taken Sam for electroshock therapy. He reveals himself as a demon.

Outside, instead of saying Cas owes both him and Sam, Dean tries to build Cas up by pointing out Cas was doing the best he could at the time.

I think what he means is Cas was doing what Cas sincerely believed to be the best; however, this isn’t the same thing. Dean still believes Cas should have listened to him and done as he asked.

“Don’t defend me,” Cas orders. He brings up the death toll in Heaven and on Earth. Then, he adds, “We didn’t part friends, Dean.”

They didn’t part enemies, either, though. Moreover, the ‘we’ part applies only to Dean. Cas left still looking at Dean as a friend.

“So what,” is Dean’s challenging response.

Cas declares he can’t fix things, and he wonders aloud why he even walked out of the water.

“Maybe to fix it,” Dean answers, and then, he withdraws the trench coat from the trunk.

Inside, the orderly is cranking up the volume, and in his dirty, bloody trench coat, Cas appears. He dispatches the orderly before taking the stuff off Sam. Not even giving Sam time to register his presence, Cas says, “I never should have broken your wall, Sam. I’m here to make it right.”

He touches him, but all Sam sees is Lucifer. “You’re not real.”

Later, Lucifer is providing analysis on the three little pigs, and I have a feeling this is supposed to be symbolic, meta statement of some sort. Cas explains there’s no wall to rebuild, and sometimes, craziness just can’t be fixed. All people can do is try to control it and keep as far down as possible using various methods.

Of course, no one suggests he try building a different wall.

However, after apologising to a defeated but not angry Dean, he realises, “But I might be able to shift it.”

Or, again, he could try building a different wall and herding it into there.

Dean is confused, but probably knowing this also isn’t what Dean wants, Cas firmly says, “Yeah, it’d get Sam back on his feet.” Sitting down on the bed, he gently tells Dean, “It’s better this way.”

I’m not sure if this is selfishness or selflessness. On the one hand, he’s making himself into a victim so that he doesn’t have to deal with being the victimiser, but on the other, he’s both giving Dean his brother back and making it so that Dean doesn’t have to worry about him doing more harm. Dean might worry about him, but he won’t have to worry about him hurting Dean, Sam, or other people.

Of course, he must know Dean would want to know about the option of trying to rebuild Sam’s wall.

“I’ll be fine,” he adds. This is what truly clues Dean into the fact he’s not going to like this.

Ignoring him, Cas-as-Lucifer tells Sam, “This may hurt.” Then, Cas as himself says, “And if I can’t tell you again, I’m sorry I ever did this to you.”

He takes the red veins of craziness into himself, and Sam comes back. Calling for Dean, he’s incredulous at Cas’s presence on his bed.

Cas is dealing with Lucifer, now.

The next scene is of the brothers leaving. There’s a shot of Cas in scrubs with a hospital identification bracelet on his wrist staring blankly in a room.

This just amuses me.

‘Hey, doc, Sam’s all better, but we have someone to take his place. Don’t ask questions, just let us do the staggering amount of paperwork. Also, so that you can keep helping insane people, just keep a hold of your own sanity by not taking note of all the dead bodies lying around or the fact this strange game of musical patients isn’t what should nor does happen in real life. You live in one world, which is real for you and most people; we live in another, that’s actually real for all of us, and if you want to keep helping the people of yours, just keep believing yours is the only real one.’

Sam is reluctant to leave Cas, but Dean points out they can’t help or protect Cas, especially if word truly spreads he’s alive. “This is safer. Every demon that knows about Cas is dead.”

Again, Daphne comes to mind. If she goes around looking for her healer husband, there are probably grateful people out there who’d help her, and if demons go to those people, not to mention her, they could establish Cas was, at one point, still alive. If they hear about this mass murder of demons at this little hospital, they might well go to it.

Sam points out Dean’s statement isn’t completely true.

Promising this isn’t a deal, Dean says Meg hurting Cas or turning him over is mutually assured destruction. I’m not seeing how. Regardless, he believes this is the best thing to do right now.

Even with Meg keeping an eye on Cas, what’s she going to do if the higher-up demons end up at the hospital? What’s she going to do if a demon or more just decides for unrelated reasons decides to possess a patient, employee, or family member of one of the two and ends up running into him in the dayroom or the cafeteria? From what I gather, they don’t need to know what his vessel looks like; they can see his true face/sense his angelic nature.

None of this is even discussed, let alone answered, and the episode’s last scene is of Meg being interviewed at the hospital. Going by the alias of Nurse Masters, she’s hired.

Fin.


End file.
